East Business Moves
North Carolina-based BB&T Corp. is buying the P/C and life insurance units of Roseland, N.J. – based insurance wholesaler Crump Group.
BB&T is paying $570 million in cash for Crump P/C Insurance Services and Crump Life Insurance Services, along with the rights to the Crump name. John Howard, CEO of Crump Group, will join BB&T insurance operations in a senior leadership position.
BB&T is one of the 10 largest banks in the country in terms of deposits and one of the nation’s largest insurance brokers. Crump is one of the largest wholesale insurance distributors in the United States.
The acquisition does not include Ascensus, Crump’s retirement services business, which Crump said will continue business as usual after this transaction. The acquisition is expected to add roughly $300 million in annual revenue to BB&T Insurance. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter.
BB&T’s wholesale insurance operations include P/C broker CRC Insurance Services, managing general agent Southern Cross TAPCO Underwriters and managing general underwriter AmRisc LLP. Including its retail operations, BB&T Insurance is the sixth largest broker in the U.S.
In 2005, Crump was purchased by private equity firm J.C. Flowers & Co, LLC. In 2007, J.C. Flowers & Co, LLC. purchased the Insurance and Retirement Divisions of the BISYS Group and combined the Crump and BISYS entities to make up Crump Group.
In 2008, Crump Insurance Services was consolidated with BISYS Commercial Insurance Services (including Tri-City Brokerage) to form an expanded P/C division.
Alleghany Corp.’s stockholders voted earlier this month to approve the previously announced merger agreement with Transatlantic Holdings. Under the deal, as described in the merger agreement between Alleghany and Transatlantic last November, Transatlantic will be acquired and become an independent stand-alone subsidiary of Alleghany. Transatlantic stockholders have also voted early this month to approve the merger agreement.
Alleghany and Transatlantic say they expect the merger to be completed in the first quarter. The cash-and-stock deal, which was announced on Nov. 20, 2011, is valued at $3.4 billion.
Integro Ltd., a New York-based privately held insurance brokerage, has formed four divisions.
The new divisions are: Integro USA, which focuses on providing broking services to U.S. clients facing complex risks; the U.K. international reinsurance and wholesale division, which focuses on P/C, aviation and marine broking for the London and European markets; the U.K. specialty reinsurance and wholesale division, which focuses on specialty lines broking for the London and European markets; and Integro Canada, which offers brokerage services from offices in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
SIAA
The Strategic Insurance Agency Alliance (SIAA) announced three new East Coast member agencies in January. Kupiec Insurance Group of West Chester, Penn., Lina Brokerage Corp. of Staten Island, N.Y., and Epic Insurance Agency of Pittsford, N.Y. Nationally, SIAA added 47 new member agencies in January. SIAA members wrote more than $780 million in new written premiums in 2011 and reached their 4000th member agency in January.
ISU Network added LB Insurance Services, an independent insurance brokerage firm located in Prince Frederick, Md., to its network of offices. This firm will primarily focus on the business and personal insurance needs of the population of Calvert County. The ISU Network, a San Francisco-based company, is comprised of 140 independently owned and operated offices.
Allegany, N.Y.-headquartered insurance network The Iroquois Group has expanded its presence in the Midwest to include Iowa and Nebraska. The insurance agency network has added seven agencies in those states and says it is expecting rapid growth in membership. The Iroquois Group is composed of over 2,000 independent member agents and more than 75 carrier-partners.
Commercial P/C insurer FCCI Insurance Group has announced it is expanding its commercial insurance offerings into Maryland. In January the Sarasota, Fla.-based FCCI began writing commercial P/C policies in Maryland. As FCCI’s 15th state, Maryland is part of the company’s southeast region based in Duluth, Ga.
The company’s further state expansions include Texas by fourth quarter 2012, Louisiana and Arkansas.